But when I finally got it into my mouth, I understood instantly why many are crazy about it. It tastes rather like raw oyster and raw squid combined, but much more delicate, tangy and, well, luscious, for lack of adjectives. The taste just cannot be described adequately in words; it has to be tried and experienced. For me it speaks volumes about the simple life and its enjoyment, about the wealth of the sea, the mystery of the mangroves from whence it came, and the times of my youth when we had it in abundance.
It is the tamiloc, that quaint, exotic, succulent and totally stomach-churning –though it churns our stomachs the other way-- foodstuff more and more people are being curious of. It is the 'woodworm' obtained from decaying mangrove trunks and prized as delicacy by many people from the Visayas, Palawan, Marinduque, Mindoro, that Arnold Clavio warned us about in his television program Emergency. It is the 'pulutan' that is so versatile it goes well with rum, gin, brandy, whisky, lambanog and tuba (best). It is that seafood so rich and delicious it will raise your blood pressure --but only if you have hypertension beforehand --- just by eating even a little. It is called tambilok in Mindoro and Marinduque.
Tamiloc is rare, even in Puerto Princesa City where some mangroves still stand. Only Butch Chase's Kinabuch Restaurant has it more regularly, though not often. It can be found also at the public market, but only occasionally, where it sells for less than P50.00 a cup. Sometimes, the tamiloc is hawked at the bus stop in Aborlan town, or once in a while in Bgy. Inagawan. In many towns of Palawan, the tamiloc is an item you can get more easily, if you know somebody who gathers it from the mangrove swamps. The tamiloc is for me –and many others--- food par excellance.
But the tamiloc is only one of the rare and unusual foodstuffs found in Puerto Princesa City. There is, for example, the wakwak, a kind of sandworm (infinitely different from Panay Island's night denizen of the same name). Whitish, roundish and long, it is taken from under the sand in wide, open and exposed sandbars but not in all, and in sand underwater for up to two fathoms. A long knobbed rattan stick is used by gatherers to poke for it if the sand is abovewater, or a common table fork with sharpened tines to snag it when underwater. Once caught or snagged, it is dug from under the sand by hand.
The wakwak is eaten raw (best), cut up and fried, mixed with vegetables, or opened up and dried in the sun unsalted to preserve it for later eating. It is also famous as bait for fishing, and particularly effective for groupers, snappers, jacks, wrasses, gars, and other benthic or pelagic fishes. It is so effective that no one ever goes home with left-over wakwak bait. Absolutely no one. Because if the fish don't eat it, the fisherman will. Such is the wakwak, a tasty delicacy of Palawan.
Then there is the green honey. In the Second World War, sugar distributed to soldiers in some areas was colored green to prevent it from going into the black market. A few civilians obtained some of the sugar and fed it to honeybees in cultured apiaries. So, suddenly, green honey was in the market!
But green is one of the three colors of honey of Palawan: green, dark and light brownish-red. The light- and dark-colored honeys are produced by two different species of honeybees, as well as a function of the kind of flowers they get nectar from. The smaller lebten in Cuyunon –similar to the Tagalog pukyutan--- frequents flowers of the bushes in the open spaces such as savannahs and prairies as well as gardens, and thus produces the lighter-colored honey. On the other hand, the larger pu'yucan –again a Cuyunon term for the Tagalog laywan honeybee variety--- obtains nectar from trees and mangroves, making for darker colored honey.
Palawan green honey is produced by bees that make hives underground. The bees dig –much like the burrowing wasp—caverns underground where they produce and store their honey, so the volume is always limited. These hives are so rare only a few people know where they can be found, and the honey gatherers are understandably very secretive of their knowledge. Green honey is, I believe, only found in Palawan. So far, that is.
Lato or seagrapes, is also known to come mainly from Palawan, and Puerto Princesa City has all the varieties, including the famous latong Cuyo. This is the most succulent variety among all the ordinary lato of Palawan. The others are the lomo-lomo, keseg-keseg, lapad, goso, paket-paket and the extremely rare latong butones.
By the way, latong Cuyo got its name from being most plentiful in the island of Cuyo, although most of it is grown in the seas of Magsaysay municipality, rather than in Cuyo town.
The lomo-lomo is the variety that wilts as it dries, but springs back to its fresh state when wetted, either with fresh or sea water. The keseg-keseg looks much like the latong Cuyo variety, and in fact is often mistaken for the latter. This variety has bitter aftertaste, deeper green in color, is tougher than the latong Cuyo, and leaves some residue when eaten. But when harvested earlier is at par when compared with latong Cuyo in almost all aspects, except for the aftertaste, though this is noticeable only to lato connoisseurs.
A more common variety is the lapad, called such because the bulbs only grow on the opposite sides of the stem. This is rather rare in the market, because almost no one buys it, except for people from the northern provinces who are familiar with it, such as the Ilocanos and Tagalogs.
On the other hand, the goso is a echeuma variety that looks like the tambalang, the eucheuma cottonii, from which is extracted carageeenan. The goso is a familiar sight to many Visayans as there are much goso in the Visayas and Mindanao.
The paket-paket is crunchy, brittle seaweed, tiny sticks with tinier bulbs in them, better eaten in small quantities, since it leaves a pronounced bitter aftertaste afterwards.
But the best and tastiest is still the rare, slimy and light green latong butones. It consists of long tendrils to which are attached little short stems topped with button-like leaves, hence the name. It is crunchy, crackly food, and tastes best when dipped in coconut vinegar before eating, to neutralize the alkaline, salty characteristic. Unlike the others it has a rather sweetish aftertaste, if one can ignore the slime that covers it.
For me, the latong butones is the number one, and I would go for it anytime. Alas, however, it is extremely rare, though a more common sub-variety can be found in the public market once in a while. So far I have seen and tasted it in Bgy. Dalayawan, Araceli and has not seen it anywhere else. I am not sure if samples still remain there.
There is also the tirik, a sea urchin. There are several species of urchins that are eaten: the long-spines, black tayong (tuyom in Cebuano); the spotty one with medium length, multicolor spines; and the short-spines, orange-and-black tirik. The first two are usually found among rocks, while the last is among shortleaf seaweeds.
The urchin is first broiled over a slow fire or some embers for a few minutes, or until the spines stop moving. Then it is cut open and the green intestines scooped out and what remains adhering in lines to its shell wall is the yellow roe, the edible part. This is also scooped out, dipped in coconut vinegar and savored with a good slurp. The salty-sweet delicate taste reminds me of the tang of the sea's surf –Balagtas' tabsing ng alat-- as it breaks upon the rocks of the reef.
The tirik remains a favorite among us, and sellers are many at the public market, especially during the periods of full moon and new moon, when the low tide is really low, and the gathering is easy. And they sell all their lots.
Aide from all these, there is also the peye, a kind of small crab that is tastier than the alimango. It is most delicious during the new moon, when the sea is shallowest at low tide, because by then it can feed widely and most voraciously
Then there are the black balilet and the bagongon, crawling seashells commonly found among mangrove areas, that can grow as big as your fist. The shell tails are hacked off beforehand to facilitate sucking off of the meat, then are cooked like ordinary shells. However, some people prefer picking the meat using a piece of hooked stainless wire.
All of these foodstuffs – and some more besides—are unknown generally in Metro-Manila, and considered exotic by many people. Puerto Princesa City can offer them to the intrepid and adventurous traveler, beyond the white beaches, the island hops, the underground river, the crocodiles, the rainmakers, and the native baskets. Legend Hotel Puerto Princesa can include them into your itinerary's interests.
